1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an input device, and more particularly, to an input device that is suitable for performing a desired operation on a screen displayed by a display device.
2. Related Art
In the past, various screens, such as a map screen and a music search screen, corresponding to the use of the apparatuses have been displayed on display devices provided in apparatuses, such as a personal computer, a digital audio player, and a mobile phone.
Further, in the past, various apparatuses have been provided with various input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a remote control, and a space pointing device, as means for performing desired operations on screens displayed by the display devices.
Furthermore, an input device, which includes both a task switch and a pointing device referred to as a touch pad and can selectively perform a screen operation using the touch pad and a screen operation using the task switch by one operation surface provided in a device body, has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-351606.
Meanwhile, although not mainly performing a screen operation, an input device that sends an optical signal wave corresponding to a detection result of a motion sensor such as an inclination sensor or acceleration sensor has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-111171.
When screen operations were performed in the past, for example, a plurality of screen operations, such as a screen operation for changing a position designated on a screen by a cursor or a pointer, a decision operation for deciding a position designated on a screen, a screen operation (which might be the same as the decision operation) for switching a screen to the next screen, and a screen operation for returning a screen to a previous screen might be selectively performed according to user's will.
Further, when the plurality of screen operations was selectively performed in the past, a user might feel troublesome in selecting a screen operation depending on the contents of the operations.
For example, as for the contents are formed so that a plurality of screens such as the above-mentioned map screen and music search screen has hierarchies (depth), a screen operation in the same hierarchy and a screen operation for switching the display to another screen were performed.
Here, as for the map screen, in general, a map screen for displaying the simplest (small scale) large area is used as the uppermost hierarchy, and a map screen for displaying the most detailed (large scale) small area is used as the lowermost hierarchy. Further, as for the music search screen, for example, a screen used to select the genre of music is used as the uppermost hierarchy, and a screen used to select repertoire to album is used as the lowermost hierarchy.
As a screen operation in the same hierarchy of a plurality of screens having hierarchical structure, there has been, for example, a scroll operation of the map screen or an operation for designating a position on a screen where a desired genre can be selected. Further, as a screen operation for switching the display to the another screen, there has been, for example, an operation for changing the scale of the map screen, or an operation for selecting desired music on the screen used to select the genre of music and proceeding to the next screen (for example, an artist selection screen).
Furthermore, when these screen operations were selectively performed, for example, when a screen operation for switching the display from the currently displayed screen to a subordinate screen is selected and when a screen operation for switching the display from the currently displayed screen to a superordinate screen is selected, different buttons (switches) need to be operated, so that a troublesome operation is forcibly performed for a user.
Accordingly, in the past, there is a problem in that a screen operation might not be easily and smoothly selected when a plurality of screen operations is selectively performed.
These and other drawbacks exist.